“Time is slipping by like a wave on the treacherous, salty sea. Keep going.” Kezra isn’t slowing down for a moment. She is a queen on a mission, guiding us up this hillside.
The sandy hill is slick as we climb to the top of the first one, before it dips down and turns into an even bigger hill. After my first close call slipping and falling, where Daegan somehow reaches back to catch me in time, he decides to switch positions and walk directly behind me. My feet feel heavy and slow trudging through all the sand, and Kezra’s urgency is making it even harder.
Suddenly, chaos ensues below us.
A mix of elements and arrows begin sprinkling the air. If there wasn’t certain death on both ends of it, I’d almost describe it as a hauntingly beautiful display of dueling lights, elements, and magic. Like a painting.
“Fuck.” It’s me who curses this time.
Daegan turns, his eyes meeting mine almost level as he stands lower than me on the slope, and they tell me to keep going. No matter what, we must keep going. Even if we see a bright red dragon, the biggest one down there that’s currently at the forefront of the dragon army, in peril. There’s nothing we can do from so far away at this point.
I’m about to turn around and continue our ascent when Daegan pushes me aside, knocking me into the dirt as he jumps in front of me in a single blink.
The heat of an angry fire kisses my face as he torches something in front of him, and all I can do is hope that he’s okay and Kezra got out of the way.
Once the flames subside, Daegan’s shoulders rise with a deep breath. I look around him at the ground and see a charred skeleton in front of him. Unfortunately for me, I’ve now seen dozens and dozens of brutalized corpses, and this one barely has any effect.
I don’t like that I’ve gotten to this point. The idea that I’ve become numb to death and violence disturbs me. And saddens me.
“What was that?” I breathe.
“Scout, I think. He was about to attack you. Terra magic.”
“They had them sneaking about all the way up here?”
Daegan looks around like a vicious predator with his dark eyes and murderous expression, daring another to challenge him. But there’s no one else, as far as I can see. “Stay alert,” he says, then gestures for me to keep going.
Before I do, I take one last lingering look at the battlefield below. I see a red dragon still fighting valiantly, but carnage is in full bloom all around him. The world is beginning to approach the pitch blackness of night, though, and I fear we won’t be able to distinguish what’s going on down there very soon.
We need to hurry.
The cacophony of screaming voices, dragons roaring, and metal clashing below intensifies. It’s completely dark now. All we have with us is Kezra illuminating the way, plus a torch that Daegan has lit. Good thing she’s leading us.
As I look back now, though, I see something curious, and I can’t help but stop and watch.
“You guys,” I say reverently.
In the darkness below, just outside the walls, something is happening. Golden, sparkling trails are beginning to weave intricate designs in the air, spreading far and wide. A golden lattice of fairy dust hanging over possibly the entirety of the elven army now hangs in the air, and everything has gone almost quiet. I think people are looking up in confusion, not realizing the death that’s about to rain down upon them. Through the illumination of the dust, I see shapes flying at the tiny fairies, possibly arrows, but the fairies continue on.
The world remains quiet for a moment as a roar rings out into the night, shaking the mountain.
And suddenly, a cataclysm unlike anything I’ve ever seen before unfolds. Dragon fire lights the edge of the fairy dust, and then the wild, bright, explosions begin. Big, booming bursts of fire ignite as it travels at rapid speed along the design. It creates a sheet of explosive fire that covers an entire army, showering those below it with death. It’s loud, it’s powerful, and it’s utter fucking devastation. For the elves and their few allies, anyway. Some, mainly the water elementals, will survive. But not many.
They laid enough dust to cover possibly the entire space that the elven army was consuming.
“I guess your friends arrived,” I say to Kezra.
“I said they would.”
With the last remains of the bright orange and gold flames sprinkling the air, it gives just enough light to reveal the absolute carnage below.
Thousands of charred bodies.
And now I feel sick. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want anyone to die. I didn’t want this war. And while my father is truly heinous, I can’t be happy about half of my people being exterminated either. Maybe they didn’t know. Maybe they weren’t given a chance to understand what’s even happening outside their kingdom.
I have to sit for a moment, tucking my head between my knees while I take deep breaths.
“Should we have tried harder to get some of them on our side? Maybe…” I take a shaky breath. I can’t see Daegan, but I know his attention is on me. “Maybe some of them have lived their lives in ignorance and didn’t even know they’re on the wrong side of things. What if no one told them?”
